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Final Fantasy IV
One of the all time great strategy games is Final Fantasy 4. This game was origanally created and published by Square, now Square Enix, in 1991. The gameplay itself wasn't that much different from the rest of the Final Fantasy series games before it, aside from the fact that each character had a preset job instead of being able to choose one. One big change, however, was the instituition of the Active Time Batlle, now well known as the ATB. This story was extremely character driven, unlike the previous games that had the same name. Characters: Cecil Harvey: Cecil is a dark knight, commander of the Red Wings, and main protagonist of the game, who journeys to defeat Golbez, a sinister man with a dark plot to take over the world. Along the way, he discovers more about himself and those around him, discovering a light that had been inside him all along. Partway through the game he changes to the class of Paladin, in which his face is shown for the first time. Rosa Farrell: Rose is Cecil's love interest through the game. She is a white mage, although she also possesses the ability to weild bows like rangers in the previous games. She joins the party early on, but gets seperated a bit later. Cecil winds up rescueing her from Golbez where she permenantly joins the party. Kain Highwind: Kain is perhaps the most interesting character in the game. He joins Cecil at the very begining of the game, but gets seperated a bit later. Through the game, Kain joins the party as an ally at some points, while others he fights and betrays the party, due to Golbez controlling his mind. In the end, however, Kain is one of teh final five characters in the players party. Being the commander fo the Dragoons, he has the job class of a Dragoon Rydia: She joins the characters as a young girl, just starting her summoning training, summoning powerful entites called Eidolons. When the party is seperated after the Leviathen attack, she disapears for most fo the game. She reunites with the party after a time, looking much older. She has spent her time in the land of Eidolons, where time passes quickly. Over her absence, she aquires several powerful summons, including Shiva, Titan, and chocobo. She is one of the final five. Tellah: Tellah is a great sage who is searching for a "silver tongued bard" who his daughter fell in love with. He joins and rejoins the party a couple of times. The last time, he uses the most powerful magic, meteor, and dies trying to stop Golbez. Due to Tellah's sacrifice, Gobez' control over Kain is broken, however. Edward Chris von Muir: The prince of Damycan, Edward has the bard class. Edward is an extremely shy character that is only in the party briefly. He is the silver tongued bard who fell in love with Tellah's daughter, who dies in the same scene she is introduced in. After he leaves the party, the abilities of a bard can be equiped like an item on any character. Yang Fang Leidon: Discovered by the party fighting off a mom-bomb, Yang joins the others for a brief time, until seperated during the Leviathan attack. During one particularly vital battle, Yang sacrifices himself for the party. He is thought dead until discovered in the Underworld, being cared for by fairies. He has the Monk class. Palom and Poram: Palom is a black mage, and Poram a white mage. They are twin brother and sister, and they join Cecil on his journey to gain the Paladin class. They turn themselves to stone in order to save the party, and are only revived at the very end, seen through a cutscene. Edge: His real name is Edward, but at least this one packs a bit of a punch. He has the ninja class. Edge has a love interest that is not very focused on with the older Rydia. He joins the party while fighting one of Golbez' fiends towards the end of the game. For some reason, he sticks around, and is one of the final five. Fusoya: Fusoya is a Lunarian, who joins the party briefly as a wizard. After a big boss battle, he leaves the party to go ahead and deal with Zemus. He, despite looking rather old and frail, survives through to the end, despite having very little effect on the story, besides revealing a few details about Cecil and Golbez. Cid: Another Cid for Final Fantasy. This one follows the basic format as the rest, although a bit more heroic. He joins teh party briefly, and then sacrifices himself by jumping out of an airship with two grenades in his hands. But... somehow he survived. Also, awesome beard! Story: Set in a time of Airships, monsters, kings and swordfights, Final Fantasy 4 is an epic strategy game that really set the bar high for its subsequent titles. It begins with Cecil Harvey as a dark night, recieving an order to deliver a ring to a nearby city of summoners. His king had not been himself lately, but Cecil reluctantly agrees after his best friend and leader of the Dragoons, Kain, steps in. Both men proceed to the city, after vanquishing a guardian dragon. The ring reacts to the city and unleashes destructive forces that burn most fo it down. A young girl, Rydia, who has just begun training to be a summoner, unleashes Titan, and the party is knocked out. When Cecil awakens, Kain is gone, and Rydia is unconcious. He carries her to a nearby city in the dessert, where he discovers the love of his life, Rosa, is sick and needs a sand pearl to be revived. Rydia joins the party with the powers of a low level black mage, able to cast several spells. After a short journey north, the party meets an old man, Tellah, who is blocking the entrance to a cave. He soon joins them, and is revealed to be a powerful sage who has forgotten most of his spells. The group journeys through the cave succesfully. Once outside, the party witnesses Cecil's old squadren, the Red Wings, destroying Damycan Castle. The party enters, only to discover a yound man weeping over a dying girl. Tellah reveals it is his daughter, Anna, and that Edward, the man weeping, is Damycan's prince, and fell in love with Anna. After a quick interchange, Tellah and Edward switch places. Edward leads the party to the sand pear, and after defeating an antlion, the party returns to Rosa's side. She is revived, and the party travels farther, to discover the truth about a man, Golbez, who is behind the king's actions, as well as defend a crystal in a city called Fabul. Along the way, the party meets Yang, a monk from Fabul, who joins the party. After entering Fabul, the party quickly must defend the city. Golbez himself apears and kidnaps Rosa, with the help of Kain. The remaining party members head back to rescue Rosa, but the ship they take is destroyed by Leviathan, and the party members are scattered. Cecil awakes near a town he had recently ransacked. The leader sends Cecil to the top of a mountain, with the help of two young mages in training, Palom and Poram. Along the way up the party reunites with the mage T ellah, and Cecil encounters Scarmiglion, on of Golbez' four Archfiends. Scarmiglion defeated, Cecil casts away his darkness and becomes a Paladin. Tellah remembers his greatest spell, the almighty Meteor, which when used can kill the user. The party heads back to confront the king and Golbez. Cecil discovers that the king had been replaced by another of Golbez' Archfiends, and defeat him.Yang renuites with the party, and Palom and Poram sacrifice themselves to save the others. After reaching their newly aquired airship, the party encounters Kain, who commands Cecil to retreive a crystal in exchange for Rose. After obtaining the crystal, the party encounters the thrid Archfiend and defeats her as well. Tellah unleashes Meteor on Golbez, releasing his control over Kain, while killing himself, and Rosa teleports the party to safety. At this point, Cid, the designer of the airship, joins the party. Kain as well, and he reveals that the next objective is underground, where four dark crystals are located. Golbez confronts the party underground and is fought off by Rydia, who is now a young woman. After this, the party attempts to escape, and Cid sacrifices himself to close the entrance to the underworld. Next the party travels to a towere where Golbez stashed the crystals. Before reaching them, Yang sacrifices himself to protect the others in an explosion. When the party fianlly reaches the crystals, a trap door opens, leadign them to the underworld. The party decides to attempt to protect the final crystal from Golbez, when Kain once again betrays the party and takes it. Now the party learns of an airship that goes to the moon. They discover a Lunarian named Fusoya there, and he joins the party. He reveals that Golbez is not evil, but under control of Zemus, an evil Lunarian. Golbez is also Cecil's older brother. THe party confronts Golbez' ultimate weapon, a giant robot designed for chaos. The party deactivates it, and Fusoya returns with Golbez to confront Zemus. The party soon follows them and discovers the pair in combat with him. They unleash a double meteor, and finish him off. He returns more powerful and takes them out quickly. The characters that couldn't make it, such as Yang, Palom, Poram, Edward, and Tellah's prayers revive the party, and weaken Zemus, now Zeromus. The party vanquish him and happiness ensues. Kain attones for his crimes, Cecil and Rosa get married, and the remaining cast apear at their wedding. Writer's Opinion: Haha, not that you really care much, but this is my opinion on the game. Overall, this game is one of the ealriest games to have a storyline that actually made me cry at some points, in a good way. Since I had played other final fantasy titles before this one, such as FFX, FFXII, and FFVII, I really wasn't sure what to expect from number 4. I had also played FFIII. For anyone that has played FFIII, you should know that that game focused extremely little to the actual story. The gameplay was what it focused on, and it did that very well. I think that when Square published this for the first time to the general public, it really defined RPG gaming as we know it today. Seamlessly combining awesome tacical gameplay with a heart wrenching storyline, this game makes me feel happy every time I pick it up. If you haven't yet, you have got to try this game. Get the DS remake if you ask me. Kept the good and added more to it. Thanks folks.a